Greenwich Board removes proposed Greenwich High School house restructuring after board straw poll and public comment

The Greenwich Board of Education voted to remove from this year’s budget-reduction proposals the suggested restructuring of the house system at Greenwich High School after an informal board straw poll showed no support and public commenters urged the board to keep house teams intact.

Board chair Hirsch told the meeting that board members would take an informal poll before the public hearing; during the roll call all seven members present indicated they were opposed to moving forward with house restructuring. The board then made and approved a formal motion to remove the house-restructuring suggestion from the current budget-reduction list.

The vote followed more than an hour of public comment in which students, teachers, unions and parents described the house teams as core to student supports. Speakers said house counselors, deans, social workers and administrative assistants provide day-to-day mental-health triage, continuity for students and families, and counseling relationships built over years. Amanda Finn, a GHS school social worker, told the board those house staff “ride in ambulances with [students], sit beside them in hospital beds, and develop plans to ensure a smooth reentry to school,” and said losing key staff would have “immediate and lasting consequences.”

Union and parent groups pressed the board to look for alternatives to cuts that would remove student-facing staff. The Greenwich Organization of School Administrators (GOSA) asked the board to review specific instructional and professional-development budget lines before cutting house staff. GOSA told the board that reverting certain professional-development and tuition lines to 2023–24 actuals would yield significant savings without eliminating student-facing positions.

After discussion the board adopted a motion to remove the house-restructuring proposal from the FY26 list of reductions; the motion passed on a recorded vote of 7–0.

Board members and the superintendent said the decision to remove the item from this year’s cuts does not foreclose future study. Chair Hirsch and other members said the district can examine house staffing and operations in a deliberate process that includes stakeholder input, but that immediate, unilateral restructuring during this budget cycle would be too disruptive.

The action comes amid a larger, townwide budget shortfall that the Board of Education said it must address through a combination of reductions and operational changes. The board indicated it would continue to seek alternate savings and to work with town budget officials on a balanced FY26 operating plan.